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Further Reading

The

Aczel AD (2003) Entanglement. Plume, New York Barrow JD (2007) New Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Barrow JD, Tipler FJ (1986) The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Carr B ed. (2007) Universe or Multiverse? Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Clegg B (2006) The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strang- est Phenomenon. St. Martin’s Press, New York Clegg B (2009) Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of our Universe. St. Martin’s Press, New York Davies P (1995) About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution. Orion Publications Davies P (2006) The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe just Right for ? Penguin/Allen Lane, London Gasperini M (2008) The Universe Before the Big Bang: Cosmology and String Theory. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg Greene BR (1999) The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. W.W. Norton & Co., New York Greene BR (2004) The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality. Alfred Knopf, US Green BR (2011) The Hidden Reality: Parallel and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Alfred Knopf, New York Gribbin J (2009) In Search of the Multiverse. Allen Lane, London Guth AH (1997) The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. Perseus Publishing Harwit M (1981) Cosmic Discovery: The Search, Scope and Heritage of . Basic Books, New York Hawking S (1988) A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Bantam Books, New York Hawking S (2002) The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe. New Millennium Press, Beverley Hills, CA Hawking S, Mlodinow L (2010) The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life. Bantam Press, London

P. Shaver, Cosmic Heritage, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20261-2, 247 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 248 Cosmic Heritage

Hawking S, Penrose, R (1996) The Nature of Space and Time. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ Peebles PJE, Page LA, Partridge RB, (2009) Finding the Big Bang. Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge Rees M (1997) Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. Perseus Publishing, New York Rees M (1999) Just Six Numbers: the Deep Forces that Shape the Universe. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK Rees M (2001) Our Cosmic Habitat. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton Silk J (2005) On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Silk J (2006) The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the Frontiers of Cos- mology. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Singh S (2004) Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It. Fourth Estate Smolin L (2007) The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next. Mariner Books, New York Steinhardt PJ, Turok N (2007) Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang. Doubleday, New York Susskind L (2005) The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design. Little, Brown & Co., New York Vilenkin A (2006) Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. Hill and Wang, New York Weinberg S (1978) The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe. Fontana Paperbacks

Life and

Adams F (2002) Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe. The Free Press, NY Austad SN (1997) Why we Age: What Science is Discovering about the Body’s Journey Through Life. Wiley, New York Bennett J, Shostak S, Jakosky B (2003) Life in the Universe. Addison Wesley, San Francisco, CA Bonner JT (2009) The Social Amoebae: The of Cellular Slime Moulds. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton Bonnet R-M, Woltjer L (2008) Surviving 1,000 Centuries: Can We Do It? Springer-Praxis Publ., Chichester, UK Boss A (2009) The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets. Basic Books Cairns-Smith AG (1985) Seven Clues to the Origin of Life. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Cochran G, Harpending H (2009) The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civili- zation Accelerated Human Evolution. Basic Books, New York Coyne JA (2009) Why Evolution is True. Viking Penguin, New York Darwin C (1859) The Origin of Species. John Murray, London Darwin C (1871) The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. John Murray, London Further Reading 249

Darwin C (1872) The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. John Murray, London Davies P (1999) The Origin of Life. Penguin Books, London Davies P (2010) The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelli- gence. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publ. Co., New York Dawkins R (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Dawkins R (1988) The Blind Watchmaker. Penguin Books, London Dawkins R (1995) River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK Dawkins R (1996) Climbing Mount Improbable. Viking Dawkins R (2009) The Greatest Show on : The Evidence for Evolu- tion. Bantam Press, London De Deuve C (1995) Vital Dust: The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth. Basic Books, New York Deamer D, Szostak JW eds (2010) The Origins of Life. Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Press, New York Dennett DC (1995) Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. Allen Lane, London Diamond J (1992) The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. HarperCollins, New York Diamond J (2005) Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the last 13,000 Years. Vintage Dyson F (1999) Origins of Life. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Fairbanks DJ (2007) Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA. Prometheus Books, Amherst NY Fenchel T (2002) Origin & Early Evolution of Life. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Finch CE (1994) Longevity, Senescence and the Genome. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago Fortey R (1999) Life: A Natural History of the first Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. Vintage Books, New York Fry I (2000) The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview. Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, NJ Hayflick L (1994) How and Why we Age. Ballantine Books, New York Hazen RM (2005) Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life’s Origin. Joseph Henry Press, Washington DC Holldobler€ B, Wilson EO (2009) The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies. WW Norton, New York Holliday R (2010) Aging: The Paradox of Life, Why we Age. Springer, Dordrecht, NL Impey C (2007) The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe. Random House, New York Impey C ed (2010) Talking about Life: Conversations on . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Jastrow R, Rampino M (2008) Origins of Life in the Universe. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Kirkwood T (1999) Time of our : The Science of Human Aging. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 250 Cosmic Heritage

Lane N (2005) Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Lane N (2009) Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution. W.W. Norton, New York Larson EJ (2004) Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific The- ory. Modern Library, New York Luisi PL (2006) The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Syn- thetic Biology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Lunine JI (2005) Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Addison Wesley, San Francisco CA MacDougall JD (1996) A Short History of Planet Earth: Mountains, Mammals, Fire and Ice. John Wiley & Sons, US Maynard Smith J, Szathma´ry E (1999) The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origins of Language. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Medina J (1996) The Clock of Ages: Why we Age – How we Age – Winding back the clock. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Meyer A (2005) Hunting the Double Helix: How DNA is Solving Puzzles of the Past. Allen & Unwin, Sydney Morris R (2001) The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin’s Soul.WH Freeman Palumbi S (2002) The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change. WW Norton, New York Pudritz et al eds (2007) Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Rauchfuss H (2010) Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Regis E (2008) What is Life? Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York Ridley M (1993) The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Viking, London Ridley M (1999) Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. Fourth Estate, UK Ruse M, Travis J ed (2009) Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA. Schopf JW ed (2002) Life’s Origin: The Beginnings of Biological Evolution. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA Schrodinger€ E (1944) What is Life? Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge Schulze-Makuch D, Irwin L (2008) Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Shubin N (2009) Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. Vintage Books, New York Trotman C (2004) The Feathered Onion: Creation of Life in the Universe. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester UK Tyson N, Goldsmith D (2005) Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. WW Norton, New York Ulmschneider P (2006) Intelligent Life in the Universe: Principles and Requirements behind its Emergence. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg Vijg J (2007) Aging of the Genome: The Dual Role of DNA in Life and Death. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Further Reading 251

Wells S (2002) The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ Wells S (2006) Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project. National Geographic Society, Washington DC Wilson EO (1992) The Diversity of Life. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA. Wolpert L (2009) How we Live and Why we Die: The Secret Lives of Cells. Faber & Faber, London

Cognition and Consciousness

Allen JS (2009) The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind. Belknap Harvard, Cambridge MA Allman, J (1999) Evolving Brains. Scientific American Library, New York Bickerton D (2009) Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans. Hill & Wang, New York Blackmore S (1999) The Meme Machine. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Blackmore S (2003) Consciousness: An Introduction. Hodder & Stoughton, London Blackmore S (2005) Conversations on Consciousness. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Blakeslee S, Ramachandran V S (1998) Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind. Fourth Estate Bloom FE ed (2007) Best of the Brain from Scientific American. Dana Press, New York Bray D (2009) Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven CT Byrne R (1995) The Thinking Ape: Evolutionary Origins of Intelligence. Oxford U. Press, Oxford Cairns-Smith AG (1996) Evolving the Mind: On the Nature of Matter and the Origin of Consciousness. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Calvin W (2004) A Brief History of the Mind: From Apes to Intellect and Beyond. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Chalmers DJ (2010) The Character of Consciousness. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Crick F (1995) The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. Touchstone, New York Damasio A (2010) Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. Pantheon Books, New York Dennett DC (1991) Consciousness Explained. Little, Brown, USA Dockery M, Reiss M (1999) Behaviour. Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge Doidge N (2007) The Brain that Changes Itself. Viking Penguin, USA Donald M (2002) A Mind so Rare: The Evolution of Human Conscious- ness. WW Norton, New York Dowling JE (2004) The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture? Joseph Henry Press Edelman GM (1992) Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind. Basic Books, New York 252 Cosmic Heritage

Edelman GM (2004) Wider than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Con- sciousness. Yale U. Press Edelman GM (2006) Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowl- edge. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven Edelman GM, Tononi G (2000) A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, Basic Books, New York Elman JL et al (1996) Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development. MIT Press, Cambridge MA. Gadau J, Fewell J eds (2009) Organization of Insect Societies: From Genome to Sociocomplexity. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA. Gazzaniga MS (2008) Human: The Science Behind what makes us Unique. HarperCollins, New York Gould JR, Gould CG (1994) The Animal Mind. Scientific American Library, New York Gould JR, Gould CG (2007) Animal Architects: Building and the Evolu- tion of Intelligence. Basic Books, New York Greenfield S (2000) The Private Life of the Brain. Allen Lane, London Griffin DR (1992) Animal Minds. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago Hansell M (2007) Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Archi- tecture. Oxford U. Press, Oxford Hauser M (2000) Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think. Allen Lane, London Ingram J (2005) Theatre of the Mind: Raising the Curtain on Conscious- ness. HarperCollins, Toronto Kandel ER (2006) In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. W. W. Norton, New York Kappeler P ed (2010) Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Koch C (2004) The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurolobiological Approach. Roberts & Co., Englewood CO Laureys S, Tononi G (2009) The Neurology of Consciousness: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropathology. Academic Press, London Lynch G, Granger R (2008) Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York Macphail EM (1998) The Evolution of Consciousness. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Passingham R (2008) What is Special about the Human Brain? Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Penrose R (1989) The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Penrose R (1994) Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Pinker S (1994) The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. William Morrow Pinker S (1997) How the Mind Works. W. W. Norton, New York Pinker S (2002) The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. Allen Lane, London Pinker S (2007) The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. Viking Penguin, New York Further Reading 253

Plomin R et al (2008), Behavioural Genetics. Worth Publishers, New York Pockett S, Banks W, Gallagher S (2009) Does Consciousness Cause Behav- ior? MIT Press, Cambridge MA Ramachandran V (2003) The Emerging Mind. Profile Books, London Ramachandran V (2003) A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness. Profile Books, London Ramachandran V (2011) The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientists’ Quest for What Makes Us Human. W. W. Norton & Co., New York Reznikova Z (2007) Animal Intelligence: From Individual to Social Cog- nition. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge Ridley M (1996) The Origins of Virtue. Viking/Penguin, London Ridley M (2003) The Agile Gene: How Nature turns on Nurture. HarperCollins, New York Rose S ed (1998) From Brains to Consciousness? Essays on the New Sciences of the Mind. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ Rose S (2005) The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s Neuroscience. Oxford Univ. Press, New York Rutter M (2006) Genes and Behavior: Nature-Nurture Interplay Explained. Blackwell Publ., Malden, MA. Seeley TD (2010) Honeybee Democracy. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ Shettleworth SJ (2010) Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior. Oxford Univ. Press, New York Striedter GF (2005) Principles of Brain Evolution. Sinauer, Sunderland MA Taylor, J (2009) Not a Chimp: The Hunt to find the Genes that make us Human. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Tomasello M, Call J (1997) Primate Cognition. Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford Velmans M (2009) Understanding Consciousness. Routledge, Hove, Sussex von der Malsburg C, Phillips WA, Singer W eds (2010) Dynamic Coordina- tion in the Brain: From Neurons to Mind. MIT Press, Cambridge MA Wasserman E, Zentall T eds (2006) Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence. Oxford Univ. Press, New York Wilson OE (2000) Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA Winston R (2002) Human Instinct: How our Primeval Impulses Shape our Modern Lives. Bantam Press, London Winston R (2003) The Human Mind: And How to Make the Most of It. Bantam Press, London Wright L (1997) Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are. John Wiley & Sons, New York Wynne CDL (2001) Animal Cognition: The Mental Lives of Animals. Palgrave Macmillan Wynne CDL (2004) Do Animals Think? Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ 254 Cosmic Heritage Scientific Knowledge

Barrow JD (1998) Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford Brockman J ed (2008) Science at the Edge: Conversations with the Leading Scientific Thinkers of Today. Union Square Press, New York Bryson B (2003) A Short History of Nearly Everything. Doubleday, London Davies P, Adams P (1996) The Big Questions. Penguin, Australia Goldstein R (2006) Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel€ . W. W. Norton, New York Horgan J (1996) The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. Addison Wesley Kuhn TS (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago Livio M (2009) Is God a Mathemetician? Simon & Schuster, New York Maddox J (1999) What Remains to be Discovered: Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, The Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race. Touchstone, New York Morris R (2002) The Big Questions: Probing the Promise and Limits of Science. Times Books, New York Weinberg S (1992) Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist’s Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature. Pantheon, New York Wilson EO (1998) Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Alfred A. Knopf, New York Acknowledgements

First, of course, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wife Jenefer, who was with me all the way through this extraordinary journey of exploration and discovery. She was wonderfully enthusiastic about all facets of the project. She read all versions of the book, scribbling notes and comments along the way. Every night we spent hours over dinner debating the issues that came up that day. Her background in literature and medicine added fascinating and thought-provoking slants on the purely scientific issues I was pursuing. She attended some of the conferences with me, and met several of the people I had contacted. She tolerated my obsession with great dignity, and thankfully had her own interests and won- derful circle of friends so that she could escape my obsessive pursuits. Our daughter Nikki and son Adam were also very inter- ested, read drafts and provided valuable feedback. Several friends contributed their views, in particular Christopher Abbott, George Robillard and Russell Stewart, who kindly read and commented on the semi-final draft. I am greatly indebted to scientists in various fields who gen- erously took the time to discuss their specialties by phone, email, or in person: Cori Bargmann (Rockfeller University, New York), Max Bennett (University of Sydney), Dorret Boomsma (VU Uni- versity, Amsterdam), David le Couteur (University of Sydney), George Church (Harvard University), Nicky Clayton (Cambridge University), Paul Davies (State University of Arizona), John Ellis (CERN), Ron Ekers (CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Sydney), Bob Fosbury (STScI, ESO, Munich), John-Dylan Haynes (Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin), James Gould (Princeton University), Seth Grant (Cambridge University), Pattrick Haggard (University College London), Mike Hansell (University of Glasgow), Len Harrison (WEHI, Melbourne), Margo

255 256 Cosmic Heritage

Honeyman (WEHI, Melbourne), Gerda Horneck (DLR, Cologne), Dan Lahr (University of Massachusetts), Bruno Leibundgut (ESO, Munich), Nate Lo (University of Sydney), Ryszard Maleszka (Australian National University, Canberra), Michel Mayor (Uni- versity of Geneva), Murugappan Muthukumar (University of Massachusetts), Richard Passingham (University of Oxford), Jim Peebles (Princeton University), Jean-Loup Puget (Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Paris), (Cambridge University), George Robillard (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), (SETI Institute), Joe Silk (University of Oxford), Steve Simpson (University of Sydney), Christina Smolke (Stanford University), Marla Sokolowski (University of Toronto), David Stamos (York University, Toronto), (SETI Institute), Chris Tinney (University of New South Wales, Sydney) and Lo Woltjer (Obs. de Haute Provence). I am especially grateful to the following experts who reviewed the various sections of an advanced draft of the book: Ron Ekers (scientific knowledge), Gerda Horneck (astrobiology), Bruno Leibundgut (astronomy and cosmology), Michel Mayor (extrasolar planets) and Stephen Simpson (the life sciences). Their opinions and comments were extremely helpful in finalizing the book. Access to the latest scientific publications in all fields was facilitated through an Honorary Associateship kindly granted to me by the School of Physics, Faculty of Science, the University of Sydney. My editor at Springer, Ramon Khanna, was very encouraging and helpful. We had some great discussions about several of the topics covered, and he made many perceptive comments that helped to improve the final version of the book. Finally I must repeat the standard boilerplate statement that is made in so many other books: any and all mistakes in the book are mine alone. About the Author

The author is Canadian, obtained a PhD in at the University of Sydney in Australia, and spent most of his career as a senior scientist at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), based in Munich. He has authored or co-authored over 250 scien- tific papers, and edited six books on astronomy and astrophysics. His interests have ranged from our galaxy to distant quasars and the reionization of the universe. He was instrumental in the establishment of Europe’s participation in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project. A member of various international organizations and committees, he served as President of the International Astronomical Union’s Division on Galaxies and the Universe. Now retired, he and his Australian wife split their time between Sydney, Toronto, and Europe, and he devotes himself to broadening his horizons in science, in the process having written this book.

257 Index

A Atoms, 6–8, 22 Absolute zero, 21, 148 ATP (adenosine triphosphate), 102 Absorption lines, 6 Autonomy, 203 Abundances, 27, 32 Autotrophs, 93 Acoustic peak, 25 Awareness, 180 Afterglow, 21 Axon, 155 Agriculture, 171, 175 Alleles, 98, 118 Allen Telescope Array, 219 B ALMA. See Atacama Large Millimetre Bacteria, 93, 103, 126, 134–135, and Submillimetre Array 149 Alpher, R., 21, 26 Base pair, 97 Alvarez, L., 123 Basic reflex actions, 156 Alzheimer’s disease, 189 Bats, 95 Amino acids, 99, 105–106 BBN. See Big Bang nucleosynthesis Amoebae, 93–94 Beaver, 167 Andromeda Nebula, 15, 18 The Beginning, 19, 20, 55 Anesthesiology, 190 Behaviour Animals, 90 complex, 161–162 Antagonistic pleiotropy, 143 innate, 156–159 , 69–70, 114 instinctive, 156, 158 Antigravity, 58 Bell, J., 51 Antikythera mechanism, 233 Benner, S., 111 Antiparticles, 44 Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), 26 Aphids, 95 Big Bang theory, 15, 20, 28, 32 Apollo Moon landings, 16 afterglow, 21 Apoptosis, 141 cosmology, 33 Archaea, 103 pillars of, 33 Arecibo dish, 219 Big questions, 243 Ashkenazi Jews, 176 Binocular vision, 201 Aspect, A., 51 Biogeography, 133 Asteroids, 3 Biological determinism, 194 impact, 123 Biomass, 92, 111–112 Atacama Large Millimetre Bipedal, 201 and Submillimetre Array Birds, 129 (ALMA), 214 Black-body spectrum, 22 Atmospheric content, 126 Blackburn, E., 145 259 260 Index

Black hole, 10, 12 Clayton, N, 167 supermassive, 12, 13 Cloning, 109 Blank slate, 159, 238 CMB. See Cosmic Microwave Blueshifts, 6 Background Bonobos, 129–130, 181 21-cm line, 218 Bower birds, 165–167 of neutral , 73 the bower, 165 Cocconi, G., 218 Brain, 154, 200 Cochran, G., 176 areas, 182–186 Code of life, 97–100 bird, 155 Codon, 97 common architecture, 154 Cognition, 153, 161, 244 cortex (see Cortex) continuum, 161, 170, 192 size, 171 Cognitive ability, 166 Breeding, 133 Comets, 3 Brightness Comet Shoemaker-Levy, 87 apparent, 18 Common ancestor, 102, 131 Bristlecone pines, 150 Complete behaviour patterns, 158 Broca’s area, 183 Complex behaviour, 177 Bruno, G., 197 Conception, 137 Conscious awareness, 192 Consciousness, 161, 179, 182, 244 C delayed, 187 Cabbages, 134, 174 disrupted, 188 Caching, 168 function of the material brain, 193 Calment, J., 144 neural correlates, 193 Cancer, 147 Conspecific, 168 cells, 150 Constants of physics, 232 Carbon, 9, 30, 32, 204 Continental bottleneck, 67 drift, 121, 133 cycle, 87 islands, 133 dating, 124 Continents, 120 excited state, 67–68 The ultimate Copernican principle, 199 Carnivores, 92 Copernican revolution, 198 Carpel, 95 Copernicus, N., 197 Carter, B., 70 Coral reefs, 91 Casimir, H., 52 COROT satellite, 212 Caste system, 94 Corpus callosum, 182 Catalyse, 108 Correlation Causes of death, 145 brain and body size, 154 Cell, 100 Cortex, 154 division, 101 cerebral, 171, 182 membrane, 100 frontal lobe, 182 minimal, 111 occipital lobe, 182 synthetic, 109 parietal lobe, 182, 183 Cepheid variables, 18 prefrontal, 171, 182 Charbonneau, D., 212 temporal lobe, 182, 183 Chemistry Corvids, 167–170 prebiotic, 114 Cosmic Chemoautotrophs, 93 Background Explorer COBE, 23 Chilean Earthquake, 121 dark ages, 15, 73 Chimpanzees, 129–130, 170, 181 Cosmic Microwave Background Chiralities, 102 (CMB), 21–26 Church, G., 110 dipole anisotropy, 25 Clay, 108, 114 temperature, 25 Index 261

Cosmological constant, 18, 19 Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) problem, 52 paper, 50 Cosmology, 16 Electromagnetic spectrum, 6, 28 flatness problem, 57 gamma-rays, 6, 12, 75 horizon problem, 57 infrared, 6, 11, 83 precision, 40 millimetre, 6, 11, 21 Cryobiology, 148 optical, 6 ‘Cyclic’ cosmology, 63 radio, 6, 11, 13, 83 ultraviolet, 6, 128 X-rays, 6, 11 D Electrons, 8, 22 Elementary particles, 44 Dark Elements, 26, 28 energy, 38, 40, 241 buildup of heavy, 78 matter, 241 heavy, 7, 9, 27, 28, 31, 32 Darwin, C., 117 light, 26–28, 32 Death, 137, 141 primordial, 27 inevitable breakdown, 141 Embryology, 132 pre-programmed, 141 Emission lines, 6 Deceleration parameter, 39 Endospores, 91, 149–150 Dementia, 189 Energy, 29–30, 92, 204 Dendrites, 155 Entanglement, 51, 241 Denisovans, 130 Entropy, 226 Determinism, 194 Environment, 117 , 26, 27 Epigenetics, 99 Dicke, R., 22, 68–69 Europa, 210 Digger wasp, 157 European Extremely Large Dirac, P., 68 Telescope, 75 Disk Event horizon, 10 accretion, 8, 83 Evolution, 32, 89, 117, 243 circumstellar, 85 biological, 113 protoplanetary, 8, 214 evidence for, 130–135 protostellar, 8, 12, 214 multiple records, 131 Disposable soma theory, 144 natural, 118 Distant universe, 17 rapid, 134 DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), 97 Evolution of life, 126–130 Dogs, 134, 174 amphibians, 128 Dolphins, 165 Cambrian explosion, 127 Doppler effect, 6, 25–26, 211 cyanobacteria, 92, 126 Double helix, 97 dinosaurs, 123, 128–129 , 220 earliest fossils, 105, 126 Drake, F., 218, 220 environment, 117, 118 Driver, J., 193 eukaryotes, 103, 127 Dualism, 192 flying vertebrates, 129 Duality, 49 insects, 90, 94, 128 Dyson sphere, 227 invertebrates, 127 mammals, 90, 129 multicellular algae, 127 E multicellular animals, 127 Earth, 3, 6, 120, 225 plants, 90, 128 Earthquakes, 121–122 reptiles, 128 Echolocation, 95 stromatolites, 126 Einstein, A., 18, 229 vertebrates, 127, 128 262 Index

Extinction, 128 most distant, 17, 75 Extrasolar planets, 210–217 radio, 13 Extraterrestrial spiral, 12, 17 intelligence, 217–223 Galilei, G., 197–198 life, 244 Gamma-ray bursts, 12 , 91, 206 Gamma-rays. See Electromagnetic spectrum Gamow, G., 21, 26 F Ganymede, 210 Face blindness, 188 Gene, 98 Fermi, E., 222 dominant, 118 Fermions, 44 flow, 119 Finn, J., 164 pool, 119 Fire, 89 recessive, 118 Flagella, 94 General relativity, 18, 45 Flowering plants, 95 Genetics, 97, 119, 241 Fluctuations code, 97 CMB, 27 drift, 119 primordial, 23 switches, 157 quantum, 23 variations, 99, 138 vacuum, 52 Genocide, 176 fMRI. See Functional magnetic Genographic Project, 132 resonance imaging Genome, 98 Food chain, 92 synthetic, 109 Force Geocentric theory, 197 electromagnetic, 29, 44 Giant Magellan Telescope, 75 gravitational, 45, 66 Gibbons, 129 strong, 29, 44 Gibson, D., 109 weak, 44 Glacial periods, 123 Forebrain, 154 Global Positioning System (GPS), 121 Formation of stars and planets, 82–85 , 86 Fossils, 130–131 Godel’s€ incomplete theorems, 236 Free will, 187, 194, 195 Gondwanaland, 122 Fruit fly, 157 Gorillas, 129–130 Functional magnetic resonance imaging GPS. See Global Positioning System (fMRI), 186 Grand Unified Theory, 45 Fundamental physics, 43 Gravitational Fungi, 90 attraction, 23 lensing, 14, 213 Gravity, 7 G Great apes, 129 Galaxy, 6, 12, 32 Great Leap Forward, 173 centre of, 11, 12 Guth, A., 57, 62 interstellar dust, 7, 11 , 7, 12, 31, 32 motion of, 25-26 H Galaxies, 12–14, 17, 32–33 Habitable zone, 81, 215 clusters of, 13 Haggard, P., 193 distances of, 18 Half-life, 124 distribution of, 13 Half second delay, 187 elliptical, 12, 17 Hamilton, W., 138 evolution, 32-33 Harpending, H., 176 irregular, 12 Harrison, E., 62 local group, 25–26 Hartle, J., 56 Index 263

Hawking, S., 56 Inflationary cosmology, 58, 60 Hayflick, L., 142, 145, 151 Infrared. See Electromagnetic spectrum Hayflick limit, 142 Initial conditions, 62 Heart disease, 147 Innate behaviour, 170, 177 Heat radiation, 22 Innovation, 175 Heavy bombardment, 85, 87 Innovative cognitive abilities, 177 Heliocentric model, 197 Inorganic crystals, 113–114 Helium, 3, 7, 26, 27, 29, 67 Intelligence, 176 nuclei, 26 Intergalactic clouds, 27 Herbivores, 92 Inverse square law, 18 Heritability, 161 Ion channels, 102 Herman, R., 21, 26 Ionize, 8 Hermaphrodites, 94 Ions, 8 Heterotrophs, 93 Iron, 31 Higgs boson, 44 Hindbrain, 154 Hippocampus, 184 J HIV. See Human immunodeficiency James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), 75 virus Jewett, M., 110 Homo, 130 , 3, 29, 210 erectus, 130 sapiens, 130 K Honeybees, 157–158, 162–163 waggle dance, 162–163 Kelvin scale, 21 Hot , 212 Kepler spacecraft, 212 Hoyle, F., 19–20, 28, 63, 67–68, 106 Kirkwood, T., 144 Black Cloud, 227 Knowledge, 299 HST. See Hubble Space Telescope an approximation?, 232 Hubble Deep Field, 14 an ‘engineering tool’?, 231 Hubble, E., 18 complete?, 231 Hubble’s Law, 19 forbidden topic, 179 Hubble Space Telescope (HST), 9, 33 non-unique?, 231 surveys, 14 Krebs cycle, 101 Human babies, 181 L genome, 100 Lactose tolerant, 174 population, 200 Language, 172, 200 Human immunodeficiency virus Large Hadron Collider (LHC), 47–48 (HIV), 135 Large numbers, 68–69 Hydras, 150 Lartigue, C., 109 Hydrogen, 3, 7, 26, 27, 29, 67 Larynx, 201 bombs, 28 Laurentia, 122 nuclei, 26 Learning, 162 Hyperstriatum, 156 Lemaıˆtre, G., 18 LHC. See Large Hadron Collider Libet, B., 187 I Library of Alexandria, 233 Ice ages, 123–124 Life Imaging, 5, 215 artificial, 108 Immortality, 149, 150 as we know it, 81, 204 Immune system, 139 beyond our , 210 Infinite, 17, 20, 61, 63 carbon- forms, 207 Inflammation, 146–147 definition of, 89–90, 203 Inflation, 57 diversity of, 90 264 Index

Life (cont.) Mayor, M., 211 evolution of, 126–130 Medawar, P., 143 exterrestrial, 92 Memory, 173 fossils, 207 Mendel, G., 118–119 inevitability, 112 Mental attribution, 169 origin of, 105–115 Mercury, 3, 210 our solar system, 208 Metabolism, 89, 101, 203 signatures, 207 Methylation, 99–100 unity of, 97–103 Microwave background, 28 Life-force, 103, 193 Mid-Atlantic ridge, 120 Life span Midbrain, 154 average, 144 Mid-oceanic ridges, 122 maximum, 144, 145 Milky Way, 7, 15 Light, 3 Miller, S., 105–106 bending, 10 Millimetre. See Electromagnetic curves, 39 spectrum speed, 5, 17 Mirror test, 180, 192 years, 5 Missing mass, 38 Linde, A., 61 Mitochondria, 101, 146 Lithium, 26, 27 Molecular clouds, 7, 8, 12, 28, 82 Lithophiles, 91 , 6, 7 Living systems, 103 Moon, 2, 3, 15, 208 Lobotomy, 190 Moore’s Law, 219 Loop quantum gravity, 47 Morrison, P., 218 Luminosity, 18 Mountains, 122 Mount Wilson Observatory, 18 M-theory, 46 M Mules, 89 Macaque monkeys, 129 Multiverse, 61, 241 MACHOs. See Massive Astrophysical Mutation accumulation Compact Halo Objects theory, 143 Magellanic Clouds, 15 Mutation rate, 119–120 Magnetic field, 120–121 Mutation record, 126 Magnetic monopoles, 57 Mutations, 117 Magpies, 167, 181 Malaria, 174 Mantle, 120 N Many worlds, 62 , 99, 133 Marconi, G., 218 Neanderthals, 130 , 3, 209 Nebulae Marsupials, 129 emission, 8, 12, 27 Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo planetary, 9, 12, 27, 31, 225 Objects (MACHOs), 37 reflection, 8, 12 Mathematics Neptune, 3, 210 discovered or invented?, 235 Neurons, 154, 182 foundations, 236 Neurotransmitters, 155 the unreasonable effectiveness of, 237 Neutrinos, 44, 67 Matter Neutron capture, 31 cold dark, 37 Neutrons, 10, 26, 31 dark, 36 Neutron-to-proton mass ratio, 67 exotic dark, 38 New Caledonian crows, 169 luminous, 36 , 32 nonluminous, 36 No boundary proposal, 56 ordinary, 36 Novae, 11, 12, 15 Index 265

Nuclear Photons, 22 burning, 30 Photosynthesis, 92, 123, 126 efficiency, 67 Phytoplankton, 92 fission, 28, 31 Placental mammals, 129 fusion, 3, 11, 28, 29, 31, 83 Planck length, 46 physics, 32, 43 Planck spacecraft, 24–25 Nucleosynthesis, 26–32 Planck time, 60 primordial, 26, 36 Planetary orbits, 3, 66 in stars, 28 Planets, 2, 12, 15, 29 Nucleotides, 108 extrasolar, 8, 211 Nucleus, 101 Jovian, 85 terrestrial, 85 Plate tectonics, 121 O Podolsky, B., 50 Oceanic islands, 133 Polarization, 64 Oceans, 92 Polar zones, 122 Octopus, 164 Polyextremophiles, 91 Olbers’ Paradox, 17 Popper, K., 232 Oldest known rocks, 87–88 Positron emission tomography (PET), 186 Oort cloud, 5 Primates, 129 Opposable thumb, 200 Primordial gravitational waves, 64 Orang-utans, 129–130, 181 Principle of Mediocrity, 199 Orbital zones, 85 Probability wave, 49 Organelles, 101 Proteins, 101 Organic chemistry, 32 Protocell, 108 Organic molecules and amino acids in Protons, 22, 26, 29 space, 85–86 Protostars, 12, 28, 83 Origin of life, 105–115, 244 Protostellar jets 8, 12 ‘chicken and egg’ problem, 106 Pseudopods, 93–94 on Earth, 105–107 Ptolemy, C., 197 Out of Africa, 173 Pulsars, 10, 12, 14, 211 Own-body concept, 180 Oxidative stress, 146 Oxygen, 32 Q , 128 Quantum, 45 computing, 51 entanglement, 51 P fluctuations, 51 Pacific salmon, 150 mechanics, 45, 49 Pale blue dot, 215 ocean, 59 Pangea, 122 uncertainty, 194 , 81, 107, 206 Quasar epoch, 76 Parallel universes, 49 Quasars, 13–15, 27 Parasites, 138 Queloz, D., 211 Parkinson’s disease, 190 Quintessence, 52 p-branes, 46–47 Penzias, A., 21 Periodic table, 26, 32 R PET. See Positron emission Radio. See Electromagnetic spectrum tomography Radioactive clocks, 125 Phantom limbs, 188–189 Radioactive dating, 20 Phase transition, 57, 71, 72, 74 Radio bubble, 223 Phenotype, 119 Radiometric dating, 124 Photoautotrophs, 93 Rare Earth hypothesis, 216 266 Index

Rate of human evolution, 173 Self-replication, 108 Rate of living hypothesis, 143 SETI. See Search for Extraterrestrial Ravens, 169 Intelligence Recombination, 22 Sexual selection, 166 Recombination epoch, 72 Shallice, T., 193 Red Queen hypothesis, 138 Silicon, 204 Redshifts, 6, 19 Singularities, 20, 46, 55 Rees, M., 75 Slime mould, 94 Regions of the brain, 182–186 Smolin, L., 62 Reionization epoch, 74 Solar system, 3 Relic radiation, 21, 22 Somatic cell, 109 Remote sensing, 208 Space, 19 Replication, 89, 98, 203 ‘curvature’, 20, 41 Replicative senescence, 142 dimensionality, 46–47, 66 Reproduction, 137–141 empty, 51 asexual, 137 Space densities, 75 Red Queen hypothesis, 138 Spacetime, 45, 55 sexual, 137 Space-time warp, 10 twofold cost of sex, 137 Species, 90, 117 Ribosomes , 5, 215 synthetic, 110 Spectrum, 5–6, 22 RNA (ribonucleic acid), 98 Spitzer Space Telescope, 213 RNA world, 107 Sponges, 94, 127 Rock Spores, 94 igneous, 120 Stamen, 95 metamorphic, 120 Standard candle, 39 sedimentary, 120 Standard model of cosmology, 40 Rosen, N., 50 Standard model of particle Rutherford, E., 124 physics, 44 Standard ruler, 23 Stars, 2, 5, 6, 12, 14, 27, 28, 32 S binary, 11, 12 Sagan calendar, 135 brown dwarf, 9, 12, 29 , 3, 210 carbon, 31 Scalar fields, 52, 59 Cepheid variables, 18 Schmidt, M., 76 first, 74 Science, 299 formation, 8 future of, 240 globular clusters, 20 how the world works, 231 high-mass, 29, 31 as human nature, 231 horizontal branch, 30 limitations of mathematics, 235 lifetimes, 29 practical knowledge, 230 low-mass, 29 progress in, 233 main-sequence, 29 questions beyond, 238 most massive, 29 taboos, 238 motions, 14 ultimate origins of everything, 231 nearest, 15 Scientific method, 229–230 neutron, 10–12 Scientific theory, 230, 233 normal, 9 Seafloor spreading, 121 red giant, 30, 225 Sea level, 123–124 subgiant, 30 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence supergiant, 31 (SETI), 219 white dwarf, 9–10, 12, 20, Self assemble, 113 31, 225 Self-awareness, 180 winds, 30, 225 Index 267

Steady state cosmology, 63 Twins Steady state theory, 20 fraternal, 145, 160 Steinhardt, P., 63 identical, 145, 160 Stellar nucleosynthesis, 32 Stem cells, 150 Stone-age brains, 175 U Strings, 45 Ultraviolet. See Electromagnetic String theory, 45 spectrum Stroke, 189 Uncertainty principle, 49–51 Sun, 3, 15, 29, 225 Unconscious decision-making, 188 future of, 225 Unity of life, 97–103 Supernovae, 9, 12, 15, 31 Universe, 2, 12, 17 Supernova explosions, 125 acceleration of, 39 Supernova remnant, 9 age, 40 Superorganisms, 94 artificial, 62 Superstring theory, 45 average density, 35 Supersymmetry, 45 closed, 35 Surface of last scattering, 22 comprehensible, 229 Survival at high altitudes, 175 critical density, 35, 57 Suspended animation, 91, 148 density, 20 Swimming neuron, 153 early, 21, 26 Symbolic communication, 163 edge of, 15, 75 Synapses, 155 evolving, 17 Synesthesia, 189 expansion, 19, 20 Szostak, J., 108 fine-tuned for life? 69 first minutes, 71–72 flat, 35 T heat death of, 227 Tardigrades, 91 history, 33 Tay-Sachs disease, 176 mass-energy, 41, 66 Tectonic shifts, 123–124 open, 35 Teleportation, 51 origin of, 55, 243 Telescopes, 12 present age, 20 Telomerase, 142, 147 Uranus, 3, 210 Telomeres, 142, 147 Urey, H., 105–106 Theatre of the mind, 182 Theory of Everything, 45, 232, 241 Theory of mind, 169, 177 V Thermodynamic equilibrium, 22 Venter, C., 109–110 Thermonuclear flash, 11 , 3, 209 Thermophiles, 91 Venus Flytrap, 95 Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), 75 Virtual particles, 51 Timeline, 135–136 Viruses, 89 , 210 Volcanism, 123–124 Tool use, 164 Volcanoes, 121–122 Transcription, 98 von Frisch, K., 163 Transdifferentiation, 150 Transit method, 212 Tree of life, 103, 131 Tropical rain forests, 90–91 W Tsunamis, 123 Water, 205 Turok, N., 63 Wavefunction, 49 268 Index

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles WMAP. See Wilkinson Microwave (WIMPs), 38 Anisotropy Probe Wegener, A., 120 Wolszczan, A., 211 Weinberg, S., 69 Weismann, A., 138, 142 Wernicke’s area, 172, 183 Western scrub-jays, 167 X Wheel, 171 X-ray binaries, 11, 12 Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe X-rays. See Electromagnetic spectrum (WMAP), 25, 27, 41 Williams, G., 143 Wilson, B., 21 WIMPs. See Weakly Interacting Massive Z Particles Zooplankton, 92